Budget Options The Private Health Insurance Market

Roughly 40 million Americans have no health insurance, private or public, and the number has grown steadily over the past 25 years. Who are these children, women, and men, and why do they lack coverage for essential health care services? How does the system of insurance coverage in the U.S. operate, and where does it fail? The first of six Institute of Medicine reports that will examine in detail the consequences of having a large uninsured population, Coverage Matters: Insurance and Health Care, explores the myths and realities of who is uninsured, identifies social, economic, and policy factors that contribute to the situation, and describes the likelihood faced by members of various population groups of being uninsured. It serves as a guide to a broad range of issues related to the lack of insurance coverage in America and provides background data of use to policy makers and health services researchers.

This report provides the first-ever comparative analysis of the role and performance of private health insurance (PHI) in OECD countries. It analyses PHI markets and identifies policy issues arising from their interdependence with publicly financed health coverage schemes. The report assesses the impact of PHI against health policy objectives, paying special attention to the challenges and benefits associated with different insurance mixes. The analysis identifies strengths as well as areas where private health insurance might pose challenges to health system performance. This report shows how governments can help ensure that PHI markets make a positive contribution to the performance of health systems. Examples of useful practices for developing more efficient and equitable health insurance markets are also presented.

The Nation's Health, Eighth Edition provides students with a comprehensive examination of the health of the U.S. population and the complex factors that contribute to it. --